Community health centers appeal for state assistance

Dr. Damian Archer, the chief medical officer of North Shore Community Health, called it “absolutely necessary” to think about how to stabilize health care centers.

“We have demonstrated what our value is to the commonwealth, and I think we just need that support in order to carry that baton a little bit further down the track of helping health care to the next level,” he said.

Archer said workforce retention is among the greatest challenges facing community health centers, which can struggle to pay salaries that are competitive with other institutions.

“We can’t keep up pace with what their needs are,” he said of clinicians and other workers. “They come with these sort of golden hearts and want to do a lot of passionate, driven, compassionate work, but they have loans and they have other needs that need to be met, which we can’t really fight with.”